List of newly formed companies: how to get one worth using

You can build a list of newly formed companies yourself from free sources, or buy one that has already been cleaned. Which is better depends on how much of your week you want to spend on spreadsheets. Here is how each method works and where it falls short.

Method 1: Companies House, by hand

Companies House publishes the register as public data, and anyone can look at it. In practice, you search for recent incorporations, copy the names, then check each one by hand. It costs nothing but time.

The trouble is volume. Firstfile's count of the Companies House register shows 16,032 new UK companies were incorporated (23–29 Oct 2026). That is one week. Nobody is going to phone 16,000 businesses, and most of them would not be worth the call.

Why a raw list wastes your time

A raw list includes plenty of companies that will never buy from you. Over the same week, Firstfile's count of the Companies House register found that 37.7% of new UK companies were shells, holding companies or formation-agent registrations (23–29 Oct 2026). Strike those out and 9,988 new UK companies were left after removing the noise (23–29 Oct 2026).

So more than a third of a raw list is dead weight before you start. If you outreach to all of it, you will get poor replies and you may annoy people.

What makes a new company a good lead

A name and an incorporation date are not enough. You want signals that the company is real and needs what you sell. Here are some we match against the register:

• Food premises awaiting a first hygiene inspection. 88 new companies matched a food premises awaiting its first hygiene inspection (companies incorporated in the 60 days to 30 Oct 2026; Firstfile's matching of public registers to the Companies House register). Good for insurers, card payment providers and payroll firms.
• A registered charge. 61 new companies had registered a charge (secured lending) (companies incorporated in the 60 days to 30 Oct 2026; Firstfile's matching of public registers to the Companies House register). Someone has lent them money, so they are serious.
• Experienced directors. 3,478 new companies had a director running three or more other active companies (companies incorporated in the 60 days to 30 Oct 2026; Firstfile's matching of public registers to the Companies House register). These people know what they need and buy quickly.

Look at the website gap

Firstfile's count of the Companies House register found that 89% of the new companies we checked had no website we could find (23–29 Oct 2026). If you are a web designer, that is your opening. For everyone else, it tells you email or post may reach them more reliably than a web search.

Method 3: a daily scored list

Firstfile reads every new company on the register each day, removes shells, holding companies and formation-agent registrations, and scores the rest. You get a short list of likely buyers rather than a long list of names. You can see where the data comes from on our company data page, and there are more how-to pieces in our guides.

It will not do the selling for you. It saves the sorting, which is the dull part.

What to do this week

1. Decide who you sell to: restaurants, tradespeople, online shops, or something else.
2. Pick one signal from the list above that fits your product.
3. Pull only companies from the last 30 days. Older ones have usually already chosen a supplier.
4. Write one short message that mentions the company by name and one specific need.
5. Contact twenty companies, note the replies, then adjust.
6. Check pricing if you would rather have the filtering done for you.